One thing that a caddy allows Tiger Woods to do, that is not done in most of the business world, is to do all the heavy lifting and coach Tiger on every action he takes for 4-5 hours a day. 

Tiger has to hit the shot, but his caddy gives him a world of ideas in order to shape and stretch his action for the maximum result. Do you have a system for stretching yourself on every interaction with your prospects and customers?  

During the past three years more of my clients are using other databases, but they still want the power of a caddy and a sales database as found in my first book. This system allows the sales person to fall back on their best work and to stretch to reach new goals.

Defining your database defines your customer

In the past 10 years, the single most powerful tool, I have seen, in the use of Act was the ability of companies and individuals to build sales by anticipating future needs of the customer. One company rolled out a product with a million dollar per unit price tag; they sold twelve the first weekend of the roll out. Another person, with a retail store, used his Act database to prepare for a buying trip. In the first week, after his return, he earned a six figure profit.

Information is the source of wealth and power

What these stories have in common is that the Act user defined the customer by defining the future of the company. The database created sales through examining various profiles of the customer. These people put information into what they sold; they sold at higher margins and with faster closing times.

Peter Drucker says "the wrong people defined the first set of business databases." and the sales people never got control again. This is the whole point of 101 Tools, which was first written 4 years before the Drucker article.

Drucker wrote in an article in Forbes ASAP, several ideas about the "Next Information Revolution" and the impact on business. The key points he presents are that information is effectively created when we start with CONCEPT, build MEANING, find what is the PURPOSE and CREATE VALUE AND WEALTH from the database. A conclusion of his premise on building a database, is that too many databases are designed by accounting.

In the above customer stories, I describe how  the database was designed by the sales people. The Act database is most powerful in building the model Peter Drucker has promoted, when you the user turn the fields and the history of your contacts into the hot buttons and the concerns of your customers, prospects and competition.

Part of defining the database is to be careful that you do not focus the database only on the numbers. A database is most valuable when it shows you the patterns of your selling. Act is the most powerful when it tells you what is the competitive strategy or the reason you won the business. What is important in building the database is to remember that you must not want a certain type of information. If you seek a specific type of information that is what you will get. A great database is full of surprises and patterns.

Profiles and Searches

Here is one example of using a database is to profile customers. How many people come into your place of business;  where do they come from and how much do they buy? Then look at the cost of advertising or of each sales call to see your budget for these transactions.

One customer did a survey and review of these transactions and customer pattern questions. This helped them to see that they spent more on advertising, that drew twenty five percent (25%) of their business, than on all other sales activities combined. A shift of a few dollars from print advertising to direct mail increased sales volume and profits. Where does your business come from and how much does it cost?

Seek and you shall find

On the cover of my book "101 Tools, Using Act to Build a Sales Strategy" are the words Get Organized and Sell More. Like Peter Drucker, I believe that organization comes from the power of information; this is the most important feature of using Act. The database creates VALUE when it tells you what your customer has done and is likely to do. 

Using the keyword search is a great tool for building the value of Act. It is helpful in the designing of your Act database to think about words that will trigger sales actions in the future. Some examples of these words are competition, compliment or complaint. An Easy Act article.   I wrote, about searches, goes into more detail on how to use keywords to find value from the history of your contacts. If you would like a copy let me know and I’ll e-mail it to you.

One to One marketing is defining the customer

The retail store owner, I described at the beginning, could have given all of the one to one marketing people an lesson on the power of profiling and one to one selling with Act. Why buy things that will look great in your store if you do not already have three or four people that have a need for what you buy?

Old models would say that if you buy three popular items they will sell. Would it not be better to already know who specifically will buy your three items? Using your customer list in Act is more powerful than to buy three items and wait for them to sell? You target your purchases, do a direct mail to inform customers of new products, then follow up to turn the inventory. This is "one to one marketing" using Act.

When you know your customer you define the future of your business. The power tool of Act is to build the database of VALUE described by Peter Drucker. This is the end of the time when counting sales calls equals VALUE. This is the beginning of the time when the focus of a sales call comes from the information of your Act database.

Review Review Review

J.M Juran was one of the great masters of the quality revolution. In his book "Quality by Design" Juran says that the value of a database comes from what he calls the Santayana Review. Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Juran claims that this review is the process of studying historical events to improve decision making. Act when used as a database to define your customers and your sales action is a great wealth building tool. If you use the historical experiences with your customer, prospects and competitors you will have a WEALTH of INFORMATION at your keyboard.